As it marks 15 years of operations, Glo leads others in voice, data subscriptions

Days after clocking 15 years in business, telecom industry report for August released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals that the grand masters of data, Globacom, got 214,646 new subscribers in the month to increase its customer base to over 40.3 million.

Globacom which in June had 40,108,508 subscribers ended July with 40,323,154, recording an additional 214,646 new subscribers.

The figure was the highest gain by any operator in July as Airtel, which came second, added 149,880 new customers, growing from 39,898,448 in June to 40,048,328 in July.

On the other hand, MTN and 9mobile lost subscribers within the period. While MTN lost 999,891 subscribers, 9mobile shed 246,221 customers.

The NCC report also indicated that Globacom has since the beginning of this year added a total number of 2,153,374 new subscribers. As at the end of December, 2017, the company had a subscriber base of 38,169,780, whereas the figure increased to 40,323,154 in July 2018.

The NCC statistics also showed that Globacom principally accounted for the growth in the number of internet users on mobile devices during the review period as total number of data users in the country increased by 866,656, from 102.81 million in June to103.67 million in July.

Globacom topped the gainers’ chart  with 574,821 new internet users, with its data subscription rising from 26.57 million in June to 27.15 million in July. This is 66% of the total 866,656 new internet users in the industry.

Airtel’s figure rose by 375,724 from 26.71 internet users in June  to 27.09 million in July. MTN also gained 134,197 new data users in July as the figure recorded was 39.07 million as against 38.94 million in June.

However, 9mobile lost 218,086 internet users in July, as its subscription base fell to 10.37 million as against June when it recorded 10.59 million.

Globacom’s increasing subscriber base is widely attributed to the numerous attractive and pocket-friendly packages designed for prepaid and postpaid subscribers.

For instance, the company recently launched Glo Yakata which offers subscribers up to 2,200% bonus on every N100 recharge and above, as well as Oga SIM which offers 125% bonus on every data subscription.